Fake news is a problem.
The truth is important.
A free press is a cornerstone of democracy and one of the checks and balances, along with an independent judiciary, to act as a bulwark against the State and the rich and powerful for the ordinary citizen.
The press itself has damaged its own standing over the years with the reporting of the daily mail, sun and express, which have large readerships and an ever worsening relationship with accurate and responsible reporting. It has then compounded that with its pathetic self interested attempts to police itself.
What is probably the most crucial issue facing us today, more important even than brexit, is the standards of the free press.
What needs to happen is that the public have news sources they can rely on as gold standards of truth, accuracy and independence.
This means several things are required.
Firstly enough news sources should not be in the hands of a few rich owners, especially when those owners are foreign and/or tax dodgers. That doesn't mean foreigners should not be able to own uk news outlets, but it should mean that the overall balance should be better.
Secondly, in the modern world, the media has had an enormous difficulty adapting. Commercial pressures of the internet with its free news and 24 hour news cycle and the sound bite culture mean that the mainstream news has to provide a higher standard of journalism, compete for ratings and yet provide it free of charge or close to it.
It is apparent that this is now an area where the market, left to its own devices, fails.
So the state must step in in two areas. Firstly it must regulate. Journalists must be trained and attain qualifications to be employed by mainstream media. Then the mainstream media employing them must be scrutinised to ensure that they are meeting these standards to retain a kite mark of quality. It happens in the legal and accounting professions. This profession is just as important. It still leaves room for opinion, it still leaves room for entertainment, but on serious issues accuracy and agreed reporting standards must be kept.
As with the legal and accounting professions, anyone who feels they have been a victim of malpractice has a regulatory body they can go to that is highly regarded in the profession and in the wider public. This is not so with the press. With some other professions the repercussions for malpractice are severe financially but even more so on reputation. At the moment the most damning thing that happens to a newspaper to its reputation is demotion as a reputable news source by Wikipedia and a few jokes by comedians. It's not good enough. It should have a licence that can be revoked.
The other thing the state should do is help with the commercial pressures. Whether that is done via tax breaks, subsidy or state funding the way the BBC is, but tied to standards, requires further thought, but the companies, in return for maintaining standards, should be protected from having to compete with internet wackjobs who can blog for free, from newspapers who are better at giving entertainment and opinion but have a tenuous relationship with the truth in its news section and from rich individuals who want to push agendas in their interest rather than the public at large and can do so under a cloak of respectability offered to them at the moment.
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